The murder of Ronald Holtz
Cheyenne, Laramie County, Wyoming · 1974
Overview
Ronald Holtz, a 24-year-old Vietnam veteran, was last seen by his family at Christmas 1974, the day after his release from the psychiatric unit of the Veterans Administration hospital in Sheridan, Wyoming, where he had met and, in September 1974, married a nurse, Alice, who already had five children and two marriages behind her. She filed for divorce in February 1975 and it was granted because he could not be found to be served. Nobody reported him missing. In 1989 one of her sons told police that in the 1970s she had told him she shot a husband named Ron in the back of the head with a .22 rifle while he slept, put him in a cardboard barrel and dropped it down a mine shaft on the Remount Ranch between Cheyenne and Laramie, where she had once been a caretaker. Agents searched the shaft three times and found animal bones, identified Ron as Holtz, confronted Alice in Missouri in 2005, and were shown the right shaft by her son in 2007, but had no money or safe way to excavate it. In August 2013 they dug forty feet down and recovered a nearly complete skeleton with a .22 bullet in the skull; DNA matched Holtz's relatives. Alice Uden, 74, was arrested at her home in Chadwick, Missouri on September 26, 2013. The next day her husband Gerald Uden confessed to the unrelated 1980 murders of his ex-wife Virginia and her sons Richard and Reagan. At trial in Cheyenne in May 2014 Alice said she shot Holtz as he reached into her daughter's crib; prosecutors said he was asleep in bed. A jury convicted her of second-degree murder on May 8, 2014, and she was sentenced to life. She died in custody on June 12, 2019, aged 80.
How it was solved
There was no forensic breakthrough; there was a son who kept telling the same story. In 1989 one of Alice Uden's sons told police that his mother had confessed to him in the 1970s that she shot a husband called Ron in the back of the head with a .22 rifle while he slept, wrapped him in blankets, put him in a cardboard barrel and dumped it down an old mine shaft on the Remount Ranch. Investigators had only a first name; identifying Ron as Ronald Holtz and confirming that he was dead, rather than simply absent, took checks with the Social Security Administration, the Veterans Administration and the courts, because nobody had ever reported him missing. Three searches of the shaft from 1989 on found the bones of cattle and pets. In January 2005 Wyoming agents visited Alice in Missouri and asked for a complete family tree; she left out the marriage to Holtz, and when confronted with his name the next day fell back against the wall and said, my kids told you. In 2007 her son showed agents which shaft he believed she meant, but the state lacked the money and equipment to excavate a deep vertical shaft safely and feared carbon monoxide at the bottom. In August 2013 a Division of Criminal Investigation excavation recovered a nearly complete skeleton about forty feet down, the skull intact with a .22 caliber bullet inside; DNA from finger bones and teeth matched Holtz's relatives. Confronted with the body in a recorded interview, Alice first denied knowing Holtz, then described shooting him at the crib, and at one point said she had shot him while he was sleeping. Her son testified at trial; a forensic pathologist said the angle of the wound made it more likely than not that Holtz was lying down; a recorded jail call with her daughter referred to disposing of a bloody mattress in an Illinois landfill. The jury rejected first-degree murder and manslaughter and convicted her of second-degree murder.
Sources
- Missouri couple accused in Wyoming of killing ex-spouses, 2 kids over 30 years ago (October 1, 2013)
“Relatives of Holtz told investigators they hadn't seen or heard from Ronald Holtz since Christmas of 1974. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs records show Holtz was released from a VA hospital in Sheridan on Dec. 24, 1974, according to the affidavit.”
- Elderly Missouri Couple Accused of Decades-Old Wyoming Homicides (October 1, 2013)
“An autopsy revealed his cause of death was a small caliber gunshot to the back of the head, and a .22 caliber bullet was found inside his skull.”
- Senior couple charged with murdering ex-spouses (October 2, 2013)
“They were the kind of neighbors you leaned over the fence and talked about your chickens with.”
- Motives murky in Wyo. cold-case exes, kids slaying (September 30, 2013)
“According to an affidavit, Gerald Uden confessed to an investigator at his home Friday that he'd shot Virginia Uden and her two children with a .22-caliber rifle that Virginia Uden had brought so they could all go bird hunting.”
- Missouri couple charged with murder lived untouchable until body found (October 2, 2013)
“As soon as his name was mentioned by Agents, A. Uden fell back against the wall. A. Uden stated, My kids told you.”
- Details of investigation emerge in local 1970s murder cold case (November 1, 2013)
“About 40 feet down, they recovered a nearly complete set of bones, including an intact skull. These went to autopsy, and a doctor found a .22-caliber bullet in the skull.”
- Uden testifies in murder trial (May 6, 2014)
“Alice Uden said once she picked up a gun the day she killed her husband, she was committed to taking his life.”
- Woman, 75, Testifies at Her Wyoming Murder Trial (May 6, 2014)
“Three previous attempts by investigators to find Holtz's remains in the mine, starting in 1989, turned up no more than the bones of dead livestock and pets dumped there over the years.”
- Woman, 75, convicted of killing husband in Wyoming cold case (May 8, 2014)
“At one point, as many as 11 jurors favored a first-degree murder conviction, but a holdout insisted Alice Uden was guilty of no more than manslaughter.”
- Alice Uden gets life in prison for murder (August 26, 2014)
“For 40 years, this crime went unpunished; that ends today.”
- Woman, 75, gets prison in 40-year-old murder (August 27, 2014)
“Her way out was to take Mr. Holtz's life while he was sleeping and then dispose of it in a way that it wouldn't be found for 39 and a half years.”
- Alice Uden, who was convicted at 75 of husband's cold case murder, dies (June 12, 2019)
“Alice Louise Uden died from chronic health issues at Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.”
- A convicted murderer now blames his dead wife for the killings. Her daughter says he's wrong. (June 21, 2019)
“I am now free to seek total exoneration which I intend to do. And I don't have to feel guilty about it.”
- Wyoming inmate Alice Uden, convicted of killing husband in 2014, dies Wednesday (June 13, 2019)
“The couple wasn't allowed to see each other or speak over the phone, but they wrote each other frequently.”
- Judge rejects Uden's attempt to withdraw guilty plea (September 21, 2019)
“Uden was sentenced Nov. 12, 2013, after he confessed to shooting his estranged wife with her heirloom hunting rifle, then shooting one of his adopted sons before chasing down the other.”
- Convicted murderer caught in Chadwick dies in Wyoming prison (June 13, 2019)
“My mother told me you were crying and he was going to kill you and I blew his head off.”
- Triple Murderer Who Killed Ex-Wife, Two Sons During Hunting Trip To Stay In Prison (August 2, 2023)
“Law enforcement personnel have never found Virginia, Richard, and Reagan's bodies.”
- The Udens: An Elderly Couple Homicidal Love Story, an excerpt from the 2019 book Alice and Gerald (April 4, 2019)
“It is only my personal feeling, but I could see guilt all over him. I am convinced he is guilty and is covering up.”
- Ronald Lee Holtz, 1950 to 1974
“Dates: 30 Aug 1950.”
- Alice Louise Uden, 1939 to 2019, with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle report of her death
“And He has allowed me to, she concluded.”